


like the sky is new (and somehow the world has shifted)

by writing_addict



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Alternate Universe - Tangled (2010) Fusion, BAMF Winry Rockbell, Dancing, Edward Elric Swears, Falling In Love, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Fluffy Ending, Multi, Mutual Pining, Romance, THREE WAY MUTUAL PINING, ed and winry are both flynn, it's the kingdom dance scene babey, lan fan knows everything, ling is rapunzel, slight slight hurt/comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-14
Updated: 2020-09-14
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:15:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,119
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26463271
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writing_addict/pseuds/writing_addict
Summary: Ed doesn't appreciate having his plans thrown off the rails, and yet that's all this damn weekend has been. From stealing the lost prince's crown to getting chased into a tower with his partner to finding and being blackmailed by a beautiful boy with more hair than he's ever seen in his life, it's been one curveball after another. Add in the boy's magical healing powers, a shapeshifting guard who really wants to throw him and Winry in jail, and the lantern festival for the lost prince's eighteenth birthday, and this bout of spontaneity is taking a turn for the utterly unexpected.And don't even get him started on the damn feelings. Even if Ling does look very pretty with flowers in his hair, and Winry is both the best dancer and the best thief he's ever seen.Or:In a Tangled AU where Ling Yao is born with magical healing abilities from the moon itself and raised in a tower, Winry Rockbell and Edward Elric stumble upon his tower and find themselves coerced into taking him to the lantern ceremony. Seeing him dance with a group of street musicans, however, is the worst/best time for all those feelings to hit.
Relationships: Edward Elric/Winry Rockbell/Ling Yao
Comments: 4
Kudos: 41





	like the sky is new (and somehow the world has shifted)

**Author's Note:**

> it's exactly what it says on the tin: a rewrite of the kingdom dance scene in tangled, but in an edlingwin version with ling as rapunzel, ed and winry as flynn, lan fan as maximus, and the emperor as mother gothel. i hope you guys enjoy it!

Despite being in the  _ literal capital of the kingdom,  _ where dozens of guards were on the lookout for the world’s two most wanted criminals, Ed was managing to have a good time. Which was surprising, really--he and Winry hadn’t participated in the lantern ceremony for the lost prince in nearly a decade, and he hadn’t thought about it much since they were kids. He guessed it had something to do with their...client? Friend? New partner in crime with seventy feet of magical glowing hair? and how genuinely  _ excited  _ he was to be here. Ling’s enthusiasm was infectious, and Ed was...well, thoroughly infected. His only consolation was that Winry seemed to have gotten hit even worse with all that sunshine-y, excitable puppy happiness, because he was currently dragging her along by the hand from stall to stall as they wandered through the festival.

He couldn’t really blame her, though--Ling’s puppy eyes were potent, and after how much he’d risked just to be out here on his birthday, he wanted him to have the best possible time, especially if he was going back to that tower. Which, frankly, was a whole other conversation they needed to have before they brought him back to said tower, because Ed was pretty sure that the man he called “Father” wasn’t a very good person. Case in point: he kept his child in a tower and apparently made him do the brunt of the chores until he grew up thinking it was normal.

At least he was out now, he consoled himself. Out, and rushing barefoot across the street to run his hands along one of the murals, his braid trailing behind him as Winry followed. Ed ducked into an alcove quickly as a pair of guards passed, ignoring the dark eyes boring into the back of his head-- _ go away, stupid horse girl, we don’t need you ratting us out whenever you change your mind-- _ before yelping as her voice huffed, “You like him, don’t you.”

Ed whirled around to glare at her; Lan Fan looked nonplussed, arching an eyebrow. “You and that other thief-scum keep making gooey eyes at him when you think he’s not looking.”

“Gooey-- _ what?”  _ He’d never heard anything so insulting in his life. Fullmetal--Edward--whatever the hell he was going by to these assholes now did  _ not  _ make gooey eyes at anyone, let alone gorgeous men with hearts of gold and the voice of an angel and healing powers. “I have  _ not,”  _ he said indignantly. “I’m making sure Winry and I don’t get our asses thrown in jail and executed, and we’re making sure that he doesnt get stuck or kidnapped or something. Nothing  _ gooey  _ about that!”

Lan Fan snorted, clearly disbelieving. He hated it, and hated that his argument hadn’t exactly convinced himself, either. “You’re a shitty liar, Elric,” she said matter-of-factly. “Any idiot could have seen it on your face when you saw him with those flowers in his hair, and your girlfriend has it just as bad. You keep looking at him like the moon itself sent him to you.” She crossed her arms, looking particularly smug. 

Ed almost-- _ almost-- _ barked a laugh at that.  _ You don’t know how right you are.  _ Though it wasn’t like he’d been  _ sent  _ to them. More like they’d broken into his home and wound up stuck in a deal that wasn’t looking nearly as bad as it had a day and a half ago. 

He didn’t even know if he wanted the stupid satchel or the stupid crown anymore. He just...didn’t want Ling to go back there. Not after seeing how vibrant and wild and beautiful--yes,  _ fine,  _ he could admit it--he was now that he was out in the world, how full of  _ life  _ he was. It seemed dimmer, somehow, in the tower, but… 

Okay, fine. Maybe  _ some  _ feelings were developing. Certain, unnamed feelings. And maybe his heart skipped a beat when Ling grabbed his hand and maybe something in him had ached with those shining lilies and gardenias and peonies, maybe it felt like it had when he and Winry had first started falling for each other--but  _ different;  _ falling in love with Winry was like electricity, diving into a raging ocean headfirst and letting it sweep you away, a force of nature and raw human power. Falling in love with Ling-- _ shit,  _ he was falling in love with Ling--was like watching the sun fall on a lazy summer evening, the world cast in shimmering shades of silver and gold, gentle and swift and wild in a way that nothing else quite could be.

He was falling in love all over again, and he didn’t know what it meant for him and Winry, not when she looked at him the same way (and his feelings for her hadn’t lessened or dimmed at all), and odds were that he wouldn’t even see Ling again after tomorrow.

Shit.

What a mess this was. Just his luck, falling in love (without falling out of love with his partner-in-crime, his _soulmate,_ and was it even possible to fall in love twice over, to develop that soul-deep bond so fast and so powerfully that it felt as natural as breathing? Could you give your heart equally to two people, love them both so fiercely that you could give neither up for the other?) with someone that he would end up losing. And not to death, not to anything permanent, but to a danger drilled into his head by someone who locked him up to--to _protect him._ Ed is skeptical of that claim, especially now that he know about Ling's healing magic, but it's not his place to say anything about it, is it? Not yet--not when Ling is just finding out who he is outside of his father's influence, outside of that tower in the middle of the valley in the woods. But moon and stars above, it hurts to think of losing him.

Lan Fan laughed, low and amused. “Careful there, thief-scum. He's going to get swept up in that crowd if you don’t keep up.”

“I--what,  _ hey!”  _ Ed whirled around, searching the crowd quickly (did he seriously just lose someone with hair that  _ glowed silver?  _ Goddamnit, he was going to get  _ caught--)  _ before spying a flash of black and lily petals. He wove through the crowd quickly, before falling to a bemused halt beside Winry as the music of the minstrels reached his ears, a handful of them playing in an open courtyard.

And Ling…Ling was  _ dancing.  _ Bare feet hardly seeming to touch the sun-warmed stones of the courtyard as he spun, twisting and whirling to the beat like it was the simplest, most wonderful thing in the world. He tipped his head back with a laugh that rang through the air, clear as a bell and bright as starlight, and Ed’s heart  _ jumped  _ at the sound, even as his body stayed frozen and still. 

He watched in awe as Ling--Ling, who had more reason than anyone to be wary of strange faces--took onlookers by the hand, pulling them into the dance without hesitation. As one dancer became many, and the free, playful spinning turned into an intricate folk dance of switching partners and clapping hands that Ed remembered being pulled into when he was very small. Black eyes found his, and then Winry’s, and Ling beckoned for them to join in, his smile full-moon bright.

“I’m going,” Winry said after a moment, nudging him; he turned to glance at her and arched an eyebrow. She grinned down at him, blue eyes filled with a soft warmth that he hadn’t seen since they were both kids, when they still thought the world was there to protect them. “Can’t let him down on his birthday, right?”

“Dunno what you’re talking about, I already booked us a damn boat for the lanterns. I don’t dance.”

“Coward,” she teased, kissing his cheek; he closed his eyes with a little huff of amusement before watching her take the arm of another dancer and get swept away with a laugh. He leaned back against the wall, watching his partner and his sort-of-crush spin and switch between dozens of strangers, over and over, coming close but never quite meeting. It looked fun, he had to admit, but he had already sung once at the threat of death-by-ruffian. He was not going to  _ dance.  _ No matter how pouty the asshole got whenever he looked at him. He had  _ resolve  _ and shit--

Something  _ shoved  _ him, and he shrieked as he was sent stumbling into the crowd. Someone immediately grabbed his arm and pulled him into the dance, leaving him with no choice but to keep up or get trampled. Ed caught sight of Lan Fan grinning at the edge of the dance, looking even more smug than before, and nearly tore away from the dance to go punch her or something--

But then he was switching partners, spinning in a circle, and he heard Ling laugh again, bright and warm and  _ alive,  _ and that anger softened as the music picked up. He saw Winry from across the circle, tried to ignore the way his face flushed with heat as she winked at him before whirling away. He twisted, and then Ling was gliding toward him, every movement as smooth and graceful as a river’s wild current; he reached for him, metal fingers intent on grasping those deceptively delicate hands. 

Just before their fingertips touched, two other dancers swept between them and pulled them away. Ed let them, didn’t say a word, but he couldn’t help peeking over his current partner’s shoulder toward Ling, watching black eyes flash silver as they met his and light up with a sort of warmth and adoration.  _ Ador-- _ no. No, that couldn’t be it. He had to have misread it, surely. There was no way these feelings were...reciprocated, right?

Right. No possible way. None at all. No matter how gentle he’d been when healing him and Winry, or how much his face seemed to light up whenever he looked at them. Surely that was it. Surely--

Because if they were reciprocated, if Ling felt for the two of them the way they felt for him, Ed didn’t know if he’d ever be able to let him go back to that tower. Not after  _ this. _

The music crescendoed and Ed’s heart skipped a beat as Ling  _ leapt  _ with it, seeming to hang in the air like a shining bit of stardust before touching down, light as a feather and barely even human. The world was a blur of blue and black and gold and silver, sharp blades and lily-flowers, and he closed his eyes and let it sweep him along until--

Calloused fingers gripped his right hand, soft, delicate ones his left, and his eyes flew open with a gasp as the music ended. Ended with the three of them in the center of that dance, as everyone halted, as he stared into eyes as blue as the summer sky and dark as a moonless night. He was breathing heavy, he realized distantly, and he barely heard the voice of the guards calling people to the boats, saying the ceremony was about to begin.

Slowly, hesitantly, he brought his hand up to brush Ling’s bangs out of his face. His face pinked, and he ducked his head, that unerring confidence seeming to shudder as he leaned against Winry’s side. “That was fun,” he whispered.

Ed found himself grinning, even as his hand slid down to gently cup the man’s cheek. “You think that was fun?” he teased lightly. “But we haven’t even gotten to the main event yet.”

Ling blinked slowly. “The...main event?”

Winry laughed softly next to him, an arm winding gently around his waist. “Lanterns, starlight, remember? Come on, lets head down to the docks.”

“The-- _ oh!”  _ Ed hid a laugh as Ling’s face lit up, black eyes bright and eager as he trotted along behind them. “But why...why are we heading to the docks, then? Aren’t the lanterns here?”

Ed shrugged as they reached the gondola, giving it a proud little nudge as he hopped in before holding a hand up to help Ling down. “Best day of your life, right?” he murmured, staring up into ink-dark eyes as he guided him to one of the three little benches, Winry bringing up the rear. The three of them together, moon and stars and sun, and he couldn’t stop his voice from softening as he took Winry’s hand in his own and gazed up at their moon-sent love. “We figured you should have a decent seat.”

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading! i hope you guys enjoyed it, it's the fluffiest thing i've written in a good while and it was loads of fun! leave a comment and/or a kudos if you enjoyed it, let me know what you think, and i'll see you next time! lots of love <3


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